Our customers are often surprised by the length of time it takes for their solar system to pay itself off. More often than not it’s shorter then they expected.

Our product partners over at LG have done much of the hard work for you. Jump onto their calculator page, plug in just a few details and  come up with an estimate.

If you produce more energy from your solar panels that you can use, this excess is sent back to the power grid. And you receive a credit on your energy bill from your energy supplier. This is a feed-in tariff.

How much credit you get on your electricity bill will depend on the amount you feed back, what plan you’re on, and what state you’re in. Australia does not have a national feed-in tariff rate. In NSW current tariff rates are between 7-11cents /kWh exported

If you want to compare electricity prices we recommend we recommend the Energy Made Easy website from the Australian Energy Regulator.

Most likely, you’ll need 6–12 solar panels, but this will be determined by a combination of factors. The number of solar panels you’ll need depends how much power you want to generate, as well as the suitability of your roof.

Firstly, you’ll also first need to determine if your roof is suitable — the direction your roof faces, and the material your roof is made from (the most suitable roofs are usually tin, concrete or terracotta tile).

We begin any partnership with Nickel by visiting your property to assess whether your roof is right for solar. It is important that we do an onsite visit in order to design a system that works for your senario. This is an obligation free consultation with one of our team.

Once your Nickel Energy solar panels and inverter are installed and connected, you should start to see your electricity bills go down. But you pay for the solar system package up front, so it will take a bit for the savings to pass the upfront cost. The good news is that this period can often be as little as 3–5 years (though this depends on a few things).

The Federal Government continues to offers Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) which effectively is a credit on the cost of your newly installed solar system.

STCs are issued with qualifying solar power systems and solar panels and can be redeemed for a dollar value that is deducted from the cost of the solar system. The value of an STC at any one time depends on market conditions.

When you purchase a solar power system from Nickel Energy, we have already discounted this value for you in your solar quote. That’s because we will manage the paperwork for registering and selling the STCs on the market on your behalf. We give you a point of sale discount based on your STCs.

On the day of installation, you assign the STCs over to us, then we complete the registration of these certificates with the Renewable Energy Regulator on your behalf and eventually recoup their value. You don’t have to wait for this to happen, we do. You get an immediate deduction in cost.

A solar system is made up of solar photovoltaric panels, a DC to AC power converter (inverter solution) and a framing system to hold the PV panels in place.

Solar panels work by absorbing sunlight with photovoltaic cells, generating direct current (DC) energy and then converting it to usable alternating current (AC) energy with the help of inverter. AC energy then flows through the home’s electrical panel and is distributed accordingly.

Here are the main steps for how solar panels work for your home:

1. Photovoltaic cells absorb the sun’s energy and convert it to DC electricity
2. The solar inverter converts DC electricity from your solar modules to AC electricity, which is used by most home appliances
3. Electricity flows through your home, powering electronic devices
4. Excess electricity produced by solar panels is fed to the electric grid and/or to your battery storage system
5. The grid or your batteries will feed electricity into your home at times when energy usage is greater than energy production (in most cases this is at night).

Most systems simply require an annual clean to ensure they continue to perform at their optimum level. Here at Nickel Energy we can offer you this service, and support with any other maintenance that may be required over the long life of your system.